


careful

by primrosee



Category: Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Mourning, Yikes, death anniversary, past loss, the other characters are briefly mentioned but it centers around walter and paige
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-29 06:35:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11435199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/primrosee/pseuds/primrosee
Summary: Paige has this constant fear that if she's anything but careful with Walter, she'll break him to pieces.This is a misconception. Kinda. Sorta.





	careful

**Author's Note:**

> whisper to me softly the three sweetest words in the english language -

If Paige could only use one word to describe her relationship with Walter, she would most likely use the word _careful._

There are a lot of things she has to be careful about in her relationship with Walter. She has to be careful about hurting his feelings, because for all of his “I’m emotionless” talk, he was hardly the robot he claimed to be. She has to be careful about asking him what he’s thinking about. Part way because he may give her a long-winded spiel about some theory she really could care less about (he’s never really been good at reading social cues), another part because if he was thinking about something he didn’t think she should know, he’d snap at her.

So, when he starts isolating himself from her and the rest of the team, she gives him his space. She worries, of course. But she gives him his space. Until she can’t really handle that anymore, but mainly when Sylvester comes up to her and says, “You need to talk to him.” because Sylvester is never that forward, so when he is, she knows that something is terribly wrong.

The garage is in a state of tension. Everyone seems to be sitting on pins and needles, but she just can’t figure out why. When she consults with Ralph, he shrugs his shoulders and tells her that he has no idea. She asks Cabe, Toby, and Happy, but none of them are willing to spill any information and she isn’t the type to press. Her last chance is Walter, but he’s been icing her out for the past week, which isn’t unlike him—but it’s a bit unlike the new and improved him.

“Hey,” she leads with, slipping into his office. He’s sitting at his desk, typing away furiously at his laptop. He says nothing to her, only raises his hand in a brief wave. “What’s up? The whole garage is just one big ball of tension. Figured you might know what’s going on, since no one else seems to.”

“Nothing is going on, Paige,” he responds, brushing by her to get to the dry erase board that she hadn’t even noticed was behind her until now. She never did stand for his bullshit, and she doesn’t plan on doing it now. She makes her way over to him and pushes the board aside, forces him to look at her eye-to-eye. He does. It’s something of a challenge, she guesses—and Walter never turns down a challenge. “Nothing is going on. I believe you’re misreading the air in the garage, Paige.”

“Don’t sass me,” Paige replies, feeling like she’s talking to Ralph for a split second. “Something is wrong, and I want to hear from you what it is. You’ve been icing me out all week, and I’m not going to let you do it anymore. Tell me what the hell is wrong with you and everyone else in the garage, because I’m not going to stand for it anymore. You geniuses may be smart, but you’re awful at expressing your feelings. I’m here to ease that, so _tell me_ , Walter.”

“A certain anniversary is coming up,” he starts off with, rushing back over to his desk. Paige stays where she is, her arms crossed. Their anniversary isn’t coming up, and even if it was, why would he ice her out at a time like that? Sure, he sucks at love, but not quite that much. “Someone’s death.”

Paige may not be a genius, but she does manage to put two and two together. The anniversary of Megan’s death is this week. Fuck, how insensitive do you have to be to forget something like that? Paige scolds herself for being such a dumbass, especially since she’s supposed to be the emotions director of this team, but she saves the beating for later. Walter is more important right now. “Do you want to talk about it?” She asks, expecting the answer to be “no,” which, of course, would not be a surprise.

But instead, she gets a, “Yes.”

“Genius says what?” She accidentally blurts out, incredibly surprised she just got a _yes_ from Walter to discuss feelings. “Did you just agree to talk about how you’re feeling?”

Walter nods. “It’s simple, really. I miss Megan. She was my sister, and that makes sense. That’s about it.”

Paige isn’t sure what she was expecting. She rolls her eyes anyway. “Yep, that’s the usual Walter. Don’t know what I was expecting from you.”

“Something more in-depth, I’d assume,” Walter responds, but there isn’t any sarcasm in his voice. He’s dead serious. “But there isn’t much more to the situation than the fact that I miss my sister. I don’t know what exactly you were expecting, Paige.”

“Maybe a tear, or something of note? Whenever I think you’re making process, you just take a million steps back, Walter. Just tell me how you’re feeling.”

“Sad,” Walter blurts out. Her eyes widen. It was a mistake, sure, but it was a shining hope that maybe Walter had been making progress with his emotions. “I didn’t want to lose her, you know.”

Paige doesn’t want to push the limits, but she wants to try her best to coax Walter further out of his shell—carefully, remember? “No one ever wants a loved one to die, Walter.”

He nods. Cool, calm, and collected. Until he isn’t. Walter always emotes like a hurricane—he starts as the calm before a storm, the perfect picture of an emotionless robot, but then he has these breaks. This is one of those rare moments where the breaks occur in his heavily guarded personality, his emotionless persona he holds up. He starts crying. Right there, in his office, in the middle of all of his work. Paige rushes over to him, flings her arms around him, and lets him tuck his head into her chest. “I just miss her so much,” he says, the words muffled against Paige’s shirt.

“I know you do,” she says, almost a whisper. She rubs soothing circles on Walter’s back, the same thing she does when Ralph has a nightmare. “We all do, Walter.”

Maybe Paige can afford to be a little less careful around Walter.

**Author's Note:**

> "waige is canon."
> 
> (you probably thought it was gonna be i love you huh??? you saps)  
> anyway i'll probably write more scorpion stuff, it's basically one of the best things in life i have ever laid my two eyes on.


End file.
